Sunday, October 25, 2020

The Second, Third, and Fourth Seals

Temple Baptist Church - 10-25-2020

Revelation 6:3-8

 

Introduction:

 

A.  The past 3 weeks, we have looked at the revelation and revealing of the Antichrist.  The “god of this world” is a God hater from the beginning and has conditioned this present evil world for his revealing and acceptance.

 

Galatians 1:4  Who gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God and our Father:  (This present evil world has columnated in our day.  There has never been a day like ours and the Lord will soon deliver us from it.)

 

2 Timothy 3:1  This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come.  (Peril has always been since Cain slew Abel, but never has there been a day like this one where danger surrounds us.)

 

2 Thessalonians 2:7-10  For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way.  (8)  And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming:  (9)  Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders,  (10)  And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.  (God set a time when He will judge this world because of their rejection and rebellion.)

 

John 15:18-19  If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you.  (19)  If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.  (From the beginning, Satan has hated the Lord and has produced an atmosphere of hatred in the world for the things of God.)

 

B.  We that are saved are not safely in heaven (in chapters 4-5) with our Lord and loved ones who have gone on before.  The 70th Week of Daniel (also called Jacob’s Trouble or the Tribulation Period) is now in full swing.  The reason for its fulness is the 2,000-year Age of the Church has allowed all the preparations for it to be in place for Antichrist’s revealing.

 

1 Thessalonians 5:1-11  But of the times and the seasons, brethren, ye have no need that I write unto you.  (2)  For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night.  (3)  For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape.  (4)  But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief.  (5)  Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness.  (6)  Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober.  (7)  For they that sleep sleep in the night; and they that be drunken are drunken in the night.  (8)  But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for an helmet, the hope of salvation.  (9)  For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ,  (10)  Who died for us, that, whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him.  (11)  Wherefore comfort yourselves together, and edify one another, even as also ye do.  (We who are saved and Bible believers know well what time it is spiritually so be comforted in God’s promises.)

 

C.  Our verses for tonight dispel the theory of many that the 7 year Tribulation Period will be broken up into 2 distinct parts: 3 ½ years of light tribulation and then 3 ½ years of great tribulation which are divided by the Abomination of Desolation.  The division is a Biblical one, but this view of both light and great tribulation is flawed.

 

D.  Chapters 6-8 will dispel that theory.  The tribulation will be great from start to finish. 

 

E.  Jacob’s Trouble, the Tribulation Period, is a story of God’s love for the Nation of Israel.  It is God’s promise of restoration of the Nation of Israel.  (God is not through with the Nation of Israel, His covenant people: Israel, My Glory—The Apple of God’s Eye)

 

Daniel 9:24-27  Seventy weeks (70x7=490 years) are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy.  (25)  Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem (Cyrus the Persian in Ezra, chapter 1) unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks (49 years or 7 weeks [7x7]to build the Temple) , and threescore and two weeks (62x7=434 years): the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times.  (26)  And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off (7x7=49 plus 62x7=434.  49+434=483 years or 69 weeks), but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined.  (27)  And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week (7 years or Daniel’s 70th week – The Week of Jacob’s Trouble or the Tribulation Period) : and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.

 

1.  Israel’s Election as a Nation.  Deuteronomy 29:12-13  That thou shouldest enter into covenant with the LORD thy God, and into his oath, which the LORD thy God maketh with thee this day:  (13)  That he may establish thee to day for a people unto himself, and that he may be unto thee a God, as he hath said unto thee, and as he hath sworn unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.

 

2.  Israel’s Rejection as a Nation.  John 1:11  He came unto his own, and his own received him not.

 

Isaiah 53:3  He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

 

Romans 10:1-4  Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved.  (2)  For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge.  (3)  For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.  (4)  For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth.

 

3.  Israel’s Restoration as a Nation.  Romans 11:25-29  For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in.  (26)  And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob:  (27)  For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins.  (28)  As concerning the gospel, they are enemies for your sakes: but as touching the election, they are beloved for the fathers' sakes.  (29)  For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance.

 

Zechariah 12:8-10  In that day shall the LORD defend the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and he that is feeble among them at that day shall be as David; and the house of David shall be as God, as the angel of the LORD before them.  (9)  And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem.  (10)  And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn.

 

Zechariah 13:6  And one shall say unto him, What are these wounds in thine hands? Then he shall answer, Those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends.

 

Revelation 6:3-8  And when he had opened the second seal, I heard the second beast say, Come and see.  (4)  And there went out another horse that was red: and power was given to him that sat thereon to take peace from the earth, and that they should kill one another: and there was given unto him a great sword.  (5)  And when he had opened the third seal, I heard the third beast say, Come and see. And I beheld, and lo a black horse; and he that sat on him had a pair of balances in his hand.  (6)  And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts say, A measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley for a penny; and see thou hurt not the oil and the wine.  (7)  And when he had opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth beast say, Come and see.  (8)  And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth.

 

F.  God’s love for Israel has never and never will diminish.

 

Isaiah 61:1-3  The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me; because the LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound;  (2)  To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn;  (3)  To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that he might be glorified.

 

Jeremiah 31:3-6  The LORD hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee.  (4)  Again I will build thee, and thou shalt be built, O virgin of Israel: thou shalt again be adorned with thy tabrets, and shalt go forth in the dances of them that make merry.  (5)  Thou shalt yet plant vines upon the mountains of Samaria: the planters shall plant, and shall eat them as common things.  (6)  For there shall be a day, that the watchmen upon the mount Ephraim shall cry, Arise ye, and let us go up to Zion unto the LORD our God.

 

Jacob’s Trouble is so much more than punishment for rejection and sinfulness, like church discipline, it is meant for reconciliation and restoration.

 

Hebrews 12:6  For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.

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